She, Herself and God Devotions
Anna’s Allegiance to the Lord
“Anna, a prophet, was also there in the temple. She was the daughter of Phanuel from the tribe of Asher, and she was very old. Her husband died when they had been married only seven years. Then she lived as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but stayed there day and night, worshiping God with fasting and prayer.” (Luke 2:36-37)
Praying is easy and natural for me because I have been doing it since the age of three, but I have to admit that fasting used to be a different story. I thought there was no need for me to fast because the grace of God was so amazing that there was nothing I could do to deserve it. In fact, I was confident that I would still experience His amazing grace regardless if I fasted or not. So what was the point of fasting if there was an easier way of communicating with the Lord, which was praying? And why even fast when I was so sure that before I prayed for anything, God already knew what I needed and what I would be praying for? Or to be more specific, why bother to pray when He already knew what I needed even if I did not realize it at all and prayed about it?
Nonetheless, the story of Anna the prophetess hit me like a bullet; and bang, I am now bleeding because her allegiance to the Lord was out of this world. According to the Scriptures, she never left the temple because she worshiped night and day by fasting and praying. Imagine, she made the temple not just her home but her whole world. She did not even go outside to socialize with her friends in the widow society. She did not do anything but to worship God night and day. And her top two ways of worshiping Him was fasting and praying, which were the top two things that I used to not take seriously because I thought they were not connected at all. But thanks to Anna, I have learned to fast and pray as my way of worship; and to my delight, these two are now easy and natural for me.
And while I did not know exactly how Anna fasted before, I have an idea that because she was a prophetess, she might have taken it more seriously than what we do these days whenever we fast. She must not have opted for a one meal per day fast nor a liquid only fast because she prayed the whole time, according to the Bible. If we think about it further, it must have been a Spirit-filled experience for Anna. Although Christ, the Giver of the Spirit, was still a Child back then when she was alive; therefore, the Holy Spirit was not there yet. But if we will compare what the prophetess did in her time to our way of worship today, we can say that her allegiance to the Lord was really out of this world.
As a woman of God though, each of us is unique and has our own season in our spiritual walk. We may not be like Anna in the way she fasted and prayed, but we can still fast and pray in our own way. We may not be staying in the temple like her, but we can be the temple of God and ask His Holy Spirit to live fully within us. We may not be fasting and praying all the time, but we can still be faithful to the Lord all the time. We may not also experience being married to a physical husband like what she had experienced for seven years, but we can be married to God for a lifetime until we experience the true marriage of the Bridegroom and His bride. In that way, we will never belong to the widow society like Anna because Jesus, our Beloved, is alive forever.
Father God, we thank You for using Anna as an inspiration for us women to be faithful to You and to keep on fasting and praying as our way of worshiping You. Although we know that we cannot do anything to deserve Your amazing grace, it is not enough reason for us not to fast and pray because fasting and praying are more beneficial for us than for You. We praise You for allowing us to live in this day and age when we can freely invite the Holy Spirit to come into our lives after we accept Christ as our Lord, Savior, and King; for we will be given an opportunity to have a Spirit-filled experience whenever we fast and pray. Thus, we ask You to continue pursuing us, purifying us, and perfecting us for Your glory so that we can be a beautiful bride for our Beloved on our wedding day. All these we pray in Jesus’s Name. Amen.
